ROSEVILLE, Minn.-Fue Chee Her thought he understood the faithfulness of God when he started Gospel Hmong Baptist Church in metro Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minn., in 2013. But in the past nine months, that faithfulness has become a visible reality as he has seen God meet every need for his new church plant. Her says that Southern Baptists across the country and in his own Minnesota-Wisconsin Baptist Convention have been a part of that story through their faithful missions giving. "We've worked … [Read more...]
Engage 24 mobilizes students for campus evangelism
NEWARK, Del.-Before October last year, Allie Murray had never shared the gospel with anyone. What the University of Delaware senior discovered during an event called Engage 24 was that it wasn't all that bad. "I'm not very outgoing so my friend was leading the first few conversations," said Murray. "I was surprised by how open everyone was. We didn't just spring the gospel on them. We asked them questions about their background and guided the conversation toward Christ. From that I … [Read more...]
Opening the front door, closing the back door
In a consultation with a church as they were developing their evangelism strategy, it dawned on me that if their church had been in a community that had not grown numerically, they easily could have closed their doors. At least two counties in Missouri have grown incredibly in the past ten years. If they lost two families out the back door, there are many others walking in the front door. However, there are churches in Missouri that would be in trouble if two families walked out the back … [Read more...]
Thinking Bibles and sowing down the gospel
When Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief (DR) had a training simulation last May, I was blessed to have a chainsaw crew composed of volunteers mainly from Lebanon visit my home. They practiced by removing two dead trees. As they were getting ready to leave, they prayed for me and then presented me with a “gift” version of a New Testament with all their signatures. It really amazed me to think that each DR crew carried Bibles, that they cared enough to share with those that they had just … [Read more...]
Because you give … the gospel goes to Japan
At the close of World War II, Gen. Douglas MacArthur appealed to Western Christians to mobilize 10,000 missionaries to Japan, which he described as a “spiritual vacuum.” The Lord used MacArthur’s appeal to awaken hearts in America to the spiritual condition of this small, densely populated nation. Today, Southern Baptist missionaries like Missouri’s Liz Welsch devote their lives to sharing the love of Christ with people steeped in Shinto, Buddhism and other Eastern religions. For Welsch, … [Read more...]
Waynesville beginning to dry out
Disaster Relief volunteers clear out 100 - plus saturated homes WAYNESVILLE – Seven inches of rain poured on a 10-square-mile area of Pulaski County in a single, two-hour period Aug. 5. Add that to the other 15 inches of rain that fell over the previous two weeks, and the resulting flash floods led to a mud-out response from Missouri Baptist Disaster Relief (DR) and ongoing hard work by local churches. “Everything was saturated,” said Dwain Carter, Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) … [Read more...]
Transitional Training to help churches after pastor leaves
JEFFERSON CITY – The pastor is leaving. Now what? Former Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) staffer Monty Hale said a church should select a transitional pastor. A transitional pastor is not an interim pastor. “A transitional pastor is an intentional ministry. An interim comes in and holds things together (until a new pastor is selected). His (interim pastor’s) main ministry is a pulpit ministry,” said Hale, now South Carolina Baptist Convention director of pastoral ministries and the … [Read more...]
Bethany Church a model for churches, schools
CAPE GIRARDEAU – Who says there’s no prayer in schools? There is at Alma Schrader Elementary School in Cape Girardeau. Bethany Baptist Church here has adopted the school through a Chamber of Commerce program and that has led not only to a positive relationship between the school and church members, but allowed them to prayerwalk the halls and stop at each door before the start of school this fall. You’re being relational, getting to know people, and then that leads to more opportunities to … [Read more...]
Missouri Baptists to share 1 million Bibles
JEFFERSON CITY – Over the next two years, Missouri Baptist churches will distribute one million Bibles through service and one-on-one encounters. At least, that’s the goal of Light Up Missouri, the thrust of God’s Plan for Sharing (GPS), an ongoing joint initiative by the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) and the North American Mission Board (NAMB) for 2014 and 2015. Over all, the goal of GPS is to spread the gospel to every person in Missouri by 2020. The idea is to get outside the church … [Read more...]
Students impact cities, prepare for missionary service
NEW YORK CITY- Student missionary Season Helms can pinpoint the day in July of 2012 when she began to look at New York City and urban ministry differently. Traveling with friends on the subway, Helms spotted a young woman dressed less than modestly. As Helms looked beyond her clothing to the puffy eyes, scrapes and bruises, she saw a young girl obviously in pain. Helms and her friends soon discovered the girl had been attacked at Coney Island and her phone, money and extra clothing had … [Read more...]
Success without love for God is failure
FORT WORTH, Texas (SWBTS) – Great academic and ministerial success without a burning, genuine love for the Lord will ultimately result in failure, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary president Paige Patterson told a bumper crop of new and returning students, Aug. 22. Patterson’s remarks came during Southwestern’s convocation chapel service on the first day of fall classes. “If you came to seminary and you learned everything that every professor knows until you could recite it in your … [Read more...]
Apologetics: Is God guilty of genocide?
In 1 Sam. 15:3 God commands King Saul: “Now go and attack the Amalekites and completely destroy everything they have. Do not spare them. Kill men and women, children and infants, oxen and sheep, camels and donkeys.” Bible stories like this are fodder for atheists like Richard Dawkins, who writes in The God Delusion, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, … [Read more...]
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